29.6.10

When I finished the quilt for my brother and his wife, I took it over to your house to show you. You are one of my best cheerleaders when it comes to all things quilty. I didn't count on the fact that it would look so good in your living room. The colours matched perfectly.

So when the line of fabric went on sale a while back I ordered some to make a quilt for your birthday. Not the same pattern mind you, but in the same fabrics. But the fabric took a little long to arrive. And as much as I was determined to get at least the top finished in time for your birthday, I had to take a step back and realize that I am not superwoman. Not at all. (I made a mathematical error, fixed it then went on to sew I don't know how many seams wrong and had to seam rip over and over. Yes, it was time to take step back!)

So Karen, from your non-superwoman s-i-l, Happy Birthday! Your present is some quilt blocks. The finished product will come, hopefully before the cool days of winter so you can snuggle under it on your comfy leather loveseat.

26.6.10

I got back to this quilt last week again and after a few evenings I had the top pieced together! Very exciting to be this far and I love the black sashing! Remember when I asked you all for advise way back in March?

It's going to be put on hold again for a while. We're going camping with Alisa and family (yea!!) and then visiting more of our families. Should be fun!

24.6.10

This may seem strange to some of you, but other than one time when I won a yard of fabric from Sew Mama Sew I have never ordered fabric online! I've looked, filled carts, and looked some more but never actually went through with it. Well...when we had mending week and Melanie from Above all Fabric offered a discount I finally did! It was fun ordering and then today when I received it it was so exciting again :)

This is some very cute baby fabric from Wendy Slotbloom she had on sale...even cuter in real life:

Some Modern Meadow by Joel Dewberry...

Textured Dots by Laura Gunn...

and a little fat eighth bundle just to maximize the shipping costs :)

It's a happy day! Hopefully you'll see some things made out of this in the coming months.

23.6.10

I started this quilt back in February. I finally got it quilted and bound. Four months isn't too bad, I suppose.

My inspiration for the colours and shapes of this quilt was actually a gift bag. You know, the kind you put presents in. I thought I had a photo of it, but I can't seem to find it. Now that the quilt is finished it looks nothing like the inspiration, but that's kind of how it goes.

Do you like Mr. Owl in the centre of the quilt? I do. It's my favourite part!

I really enjoyed making this quilt. The colours are so happy and fun. And so very summer. You know, here on the west coast of Canada we haven't had too much summer yet. We haven't hit 30 degrees and we haven't needed to put out the kiddie pool or the sprinkler. So the quilt is saying summer for us.

The backing. I have had this fabric in my stash for over 8 years. Just waiting. It is not 100% cotton, but it is good quality and worked so well with the top that I just had to use it.

The binding. A beautiful shade of plum. Or purple. Call it how you want it, I love the colour and I think it ties it all together. It has also been sitting in my stash for the longest time.

After much deliberation I have decided to list it for sale in my newly formed etsy shop - Busy Quilt Mom. Will it sell? Probably not, but I'm going to try anyway.

I love all kinds of sewing but nothing compares to finishing a quilt that you love. It's a great feeling! What about you - what's your favourite kind of finish?

22.6.10

It started out as a vintage table cloth. I hoarded it in my stash for quite some time, just pondering the possibilities. I asked for ideas from family members and friends and the best suggestion was from Benjamin. "How about using it as a table cloth?" Um, yeah, but that's what it is. I want to make it into something different.Using the Birdie Sling Pattern from Amy Butler, I turned that table cloth into a new diaper bag. The photo is not very good. It really is a great diaper bag. It's huge so it fits my cloth diapers, bottles and snacks plus my wallet. I only wish I had put a key fob in it.For the handle I used the border of the table cloth.

12.6.10

A few weeks ago we went out to my b-i-l's little ranch out in Meritt. I took this little quilt along for the ride. (I was sewing the binding down on the way up.)

So, why not do a photo shoot with my little quilt? I only wish I had a larger quilt to take photos of while I was there. There are many beautiful places to take photos.

Blowing in the breeze. You can see Highway 1 in the background on the hill. For those of you who care.

Close-up of the quilting. Just my basic meandering. One day I'll venture out. The squares were cut at 2.25 inches, finishing at 1.75 inches. Quite small, but not overly so. I cut them that size based on the size of my scraps.

I gave this table quilt to my mother-in-law. She likes it, so I am happy.

It's almost summer break for the kids. I am so ready for it! Though the weather has been cool and wet here, today it is sunny and it makes me look forward to camping with my sister and her family!

7.6.10

We want to thank you all for participating in Mending Week. Not including Suzanne and myself there were 11 participants. We're so glad we had company while we did our mending and that you all got so much finished too!

We have 2 prizes to give away this evening. I decided to write all of the names out on little pieces of paper, fold them up and put them in this bucket.

The first prize is 3 patterns of your choice from Leila & Ben. Carolin is picking out a name...

It's

Bonnie from Fishsticks and Fries. I love her blog. I really want to try out her patterns, but haven't yet. She is a Christian mom of 6 who I admire. Thanks for joining us for Mending Week, Bonnie! Suzanne will take care of getting you your patterns.

5.6.10

Take 15% off your order at Above All Fabric with the discount code 'MEND'. This code will expire in about a week. Thanks Melanie!

Just wanted to post this photo of a quilt that Christephi from Sprouting Flowers has been mending this week. It looks like a huge job, but certainly a worthwhile one!

"My grandma made this quilt before I was born (that puts it at almost 30 years old). I am her first grandchild, the child of her firstborn, so I can just imagine she was excited and eager to make up a whole bunch of things for the new baby! The quilt is about crib size. It was sewn by hand, at least the appliques and embroidery bits were; I don't think it was ever actually "quilted." Over the years bits of the stitching have come undone until some of the appliqued bits have fallen off. I have had them safely laid aside for several years now, but it is time to unearth them and mend the quilt so it can once again wrap up a sweet baby."

I didn't get my whole list done but the stuff I did I'm very pleased with :) To start off I'll tell you I'm horrible at mending...so horrible in fact that I've barely ever done it because it will sit in a pile so long that by the time I get to it, it doesn't fit anyone anymore! For example, last winter my husband lost a button on his jacket and kindly asked me to fix it. Over the months I was asked, hinted at and asked again but I kept forgetting or giving excuses. Finally, a couple of months into this past winter I put one on (good thing he doesn't grow anymore)! Long story short...I was thankful for this week because I actually got some things fixed!

Leggings became shorts great for under dresses! Although she came home the first day from school without them on - she said it was too hot - I tried to explain what being modest was...and they stayed on the next time she wore them :)

And in addition to the knee patches I did, I made two pairs of pants into shorts, fixed the ruffle on the pink shirt and sewed the overlapping front by the buttons closed on the dress because it never sat properly and they don't need to be opened.

There's still time tolink up if you've done some mending this week! We'll be back on Monday!

4.6.10

I'm happy to say that all of my mending is completed! All of it! I'm surprised myself.

Here's the roller shade in my girls room. A few years ago they were fooling around with it and rippied it. Since it was way to long anyways, I just cut it off and it was still very useable. But it didn't have that bar along the bottom anymore. Besides looking really ugly, it would often flip around the top when I was rolling it up because it didn't have anything to stop it.

That is no longer a problem. With the help of my husband, who had to hold it as I sewed, I sewed a casing onto the bottom of the blind. Then I inserted a 3/4 inch piece of wood trim. Lastly I glued on some ric rac to cover up the ugly seam. It was actually pretty tough to sew the casing onto the vinyl blind and I considered giving up. My husband convince me to keep going, telling me that once the wood was inside the casing it wouldn't look as bad. And he was right. It looks okay now. It works way better too.

Now on to you. Have you been participating in Mending Week? It's not too late to join in. Just work on your mending today and tomorrow yet.

At the bottom of this post you will find a Mister Linky. If you've blogged about your mending or posted it in on a flickr page please link up at the bottom. You will be in the running for two great prizes!

First prize will be for a three-pattern package from Leila & Ben! The patterns are for crochet and sewing, designed by two moms (from Alberta, Canada.) The patterns are modern and simple. See?

They also offer a free pattern for a vest on their site which I would love to make for Zachary this coming fall. Adorable.

Our second prize is a charm pack from Above All Fabric. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to deal with Melanie at Above All Fabric. She goes above and beyond and answers email questions fast. Her online shop is great and she leans heavily toward the apparel end of sewing (rather than quilting) which I think is fun and refreshing. She has a ton of stuff on sale right now, but it ends very soon so get it now.

A charm pack is a great prize for Mending Week. Think patches. Fun! What would you pick?

We will be leaving the Mister Linky up until Monday evening. Simply link up to any post or flickr photo that tells what kind of Mending you've been doing this week.

This tutorial was put together by my s-i-l, Karen. She is incredibly talented in many areas, but especially in all things sewing. She is also exceptional at "making more with less." I've picked her brain about all kinds of sewing questions and she helped me buy my serger. She also cheers me on when I try new things or finish a quilt. Did I mention that she is really good at sewing? Way back when, like about 16 (17?) years ago she made her own wedding dress. She is really, really good. And fast. She's also a wonderful Aunty to my kids and great company! Thanks Karen for a great tutorial.

Waistband Adjustment Tutorial

I love getting hand-me-downs, but they often need some kind of adjustment. I have adjusted waistbands on dozens of jeans/pants/shorts over the years. When the bottoms fit well everywhere except in the waist then I like to add an elastic in the back section of the waist band.

Here are the shorts before adjustment.

Open the seam along the bottom of the waistband on each side by the side seam. Open only about 1 1/2 inches.

Slip the elastic through, adjust to fit.

Stitch through the waist band (top to bottom) being sure to catch the elastic.

Thank you for stopping by our blog! We, Alisa and Suzanne, are sisters and friends. We are Christian wives, mothers and daughters. We are home makers. We sew, quilt, bake, cook, preserve, clean, launder and much more. We've started this blog to chart our creative endeavors. We also like to make more with less. As mothers of 6 and 5 we are trying to create and make without breaking the bank.